


it’s only natural

by nutellamuffin



Series: give your life to music [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Banter, Dorks in Love, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Fluff, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Sirius Black is a Good Boyfriend, Song: Bones (The Killers), Songfic, Swimming, The Great Lake | The Black Lake (Harry Potter), and remus loves him, even if he pretends he doesn’t sometimes, kind of, theyre just really cute okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29760957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutellamuffin/pseuds/nutellamuffin
Summary: “let’s do something fun.”“give me my book back.”“c’mon, moons, please?”and he’s making that stupid pouty face. that puppy-eyed, mouth-drooping, eyebrows-drawn face. he’s also less than a foot away from remus with his favourite book in tow, and so remus can’t give his expression all the credit.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: give your life to music [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089209
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	it’s only natural

**Author's Note:**

> this fic’s song is “bones” by the killers, the title and the lyrics are from it. i highly suggest you listen to it. it makes me nostalgic about experiences i’ve never had.

_( down to the ocean, it’s only water and sand )_

_( and in the ocean, we’ll hold hands )_

remus has been in the library for exactly two hours and forty-two minutes when sirius gets bored. he’s not bored because he’s been accompanying him the whole time, oh no, he’s already figured out that that’s a recipe for disaster; he’s bored because, as luck would have it, remus being in the library means that lily went with him, and lily being in the library means james is pouting about her spending all her time with him, and james pouting means that peter is three seconds away from starting a speech about how best mates are forever. or something like that.

sirius decides to take matters into his own hands.

once he gets there, however, lily is nowhere to be found, and it’s just remus surrounded by three stacks of books in the corner. he hears laughter off to the side, one of them sounding suspiciously like marlene, and so he can assume that that’s where lily went. he doesn’t particularly care, however, making his presence known by climbing onto the table remus is sitting at and sitting expectantly in front of him.

“i’m nearly done.”

“you’ve been ‘nearly done’ for almost three hours now.”

“this is the first time you’ve come to check.”

“it is, but i know that if i _had_ come to check anytime earlier, you would’ve told me you were nearly done.”

remus looks up from his book to give sirius a pointed look, and sirius only grins.

"what are you reading that's so interesting, anyways?" he yanks the book out of remus' hands, and scans the page he was on, audible protest ringing in his ears as he jumps off the table to avoid it being snatched back, "this isn't even the good part, it doesn't get good until marius’ chapters."

remus sits back down and stares at sirius for a long moment, to which the other merely looks at him and hands him his book back, putting his bookmark in between the pages.

"what?"

"you've read it?"

"you haven't?"

"well, i've almost finished it, but i-"

"i'm not as much of an idiot as you take me for, you know, moons," it's hard to tell whether or not he's joking, because he's wearing that stupid grin on his face, and he plops down in a chair next to him, "i've read it twice."

remus stares at him for a long moment, seemingly deciding whether or not today is a give-sirius-a-win-and-believe-everything-he-says day or a ignore-sirius-and-go-back-to-work day. before he can evidently go with the latter option, though, sirius is sweeping him to his feet, remus’ book once again in his hold.

“let’s do something fun.”

“give me my book back.”

“c’mon, moons, please?”

and he’s making that stupid pouty face. that puppy-eyed, mouth-drooping, eyebrows-drawn face. he’s also less than a foot away from remus with his favourite book in tow, and so remus can’t give his expression all the credit.

there’s a long pause before remus exhales _“fine,”_ and sirius’ expression breaks out in a grin before he gives the whole library a show by dipping remus and kissing him right then and there.

“you’re the greatest.”

“give me my book back.”

“i love you.”

“if the spine is cracked, you’re telling my mother yourself.”

“this is your definition of fun, pads?” remus asks, skeptical, staring down at the water that stares right back at him.

sirius is currently trying to wrestle his second sock off, throwing it somewhere along the rocky banks, before looking over at remus quizically and shrugging as if it’s obvious. “i know what you’re thinking. they’re going to see us-”

“they will.”

“and it’s too cold-”

“it is.”

“and we’re going to get in trouble.”

“we are.”

sirius laughs, and remus doesn’t, and in a grand demonstration of sirius trying to convince him that he’s actually thought this out- he has, which isn’t to say that it works- sirius jumps into the water, causing remus to press himself back against the stone wall and glare down at him defiantly.

he makes some kind of hurt noise and remus rolls his eyes.

“c’mon, moony,” sirius wades his way over to the bank, resting his forearms on the rocks and looking up at remus, reaching out to poke his shoe. “i promise i checked. no one can see from the yard ‘cause we’re around the corner, and the water isn’t as cold as you think it is. no one’s out here anyway, not on a saturday.”

he feels like he’s convinced him, because remus isn’t recoiling against the wall in retaliation anymore, and sirius grins when he kneels down because he knows his boyfriend more than anything in the world.

“promise?”

“promise.”

remus sighs in a way that isn’t a sigh at all and pulls his jumper over his head, piling his clothes up with sirius’ until it’s hard to tell who’s whose anymore and slips into the lake. sirius was right, even if he won’t admit it; the water _isn’t_ that cold, not really, and remus has always been excellent at treading. he has to stop, though, when he swims up towards him, and remus grabs onto the wall as sirius leans up for a damp kiss.

“what happens if we get eaten by the giant squid?” remus hums, sliding his arm around sirius’ shoulders and planting his feet onto the rocks under the surface so that sirius can hold onto him.

sirius shrugs, looping his arms around remus’ waist. “‘suppose we’ll go down in the books as the first to die via skinny dipping.” he muses nonchalantly, much more invested in his lips against remus’ jawline rather than the talk of their potential doom.

remus makes some kind of huffing noise and shoves sirius away from him, who laughs and begins to tread again, brushing his hair out of his face.

“we’re _not_ skinny dipping, you dog.”

“no, but people who see us aren’t gonna know that, are they?”

“you said no one could see us!”

“only if we die.”

“those aren’t good odds,” remus mutters, kicking off from the rocks to go tread near sirius, who seems happy with the company even though remus is making a face like someone just told him he has to eat artichokes for the rest of his life. (remus probably wouldn’t have a problem with that. but remus didn’t have a problem with anything, if he had enough nerve.)

sirius only hums, perfectly content given their conversation. “i’ll take them,” he remarks, moving to float on his back with a smile on his face as remus joins him soon after.

they climb out of the lake when the sun is nearing the horizon, and sirius informs remus that he didn’t bring towels. neither of them are shivering, but the way remus glares at him, he might as well have been dying from hypothermia. but, to sirius’ surprise, he doesn’t give him some long-winded speech about it; he tells him to put on his clothes anyway, and wrestles with his shoelaces.

sirius sits back against the wall as he watches remus struggle with getting his upper half clothed- every time he goes to help, remus makes some sort of groan of “pads, your hands are _freezing,”_ and so sirius has resorted to leaving him be. he doesn’t miss the way that remus is clearly trying to turn sideways away from sirius, because his right side has always been more scarred than the left.

“you don’t have to turn away like that.” sirius says quietly, and remus doesn’t falter for even a moment. used to it. deflecting.

“you can pretend not to care, sirius.” he says after a long pause, chewing his lower lip before adding, “that doesn’t mean you don’t.”

“nah. scars are hot.”

“that doesn’t help.” (it did. a little.)

sirius slides away from the wall a little, looping his arm around remus’ waist and guiding him back against his chest; this time, remus doesn’t make any crack about how cold sirius’ hands are. they sit like that for what might be hours, if they didn’t have the sun setting in front of them to tell them exactly how long it’s been.

at some point, remus gets his sweater over his head, and fumbles around for his wand. he mutters a quiet _focillo_ and sirius is enveloped by a gentle warmth, with remus exhaling comfortably in front of him. he turns a bit in sirius’ lap, tucking his head in the crook of his neck where it smells like sandalwood and fireplace ash and saltwater; remus is the most placid when he’s in sirius’ arms, he finds, even if it takes quite a while to get him there.

sirius is the only one watching the sunset when it explodes in pinks and oranges and yellows across the sky, but remus makes a quiet, snuffly sort of noise from where he’s pressed against him, and sirius decides he doesn’t mind.

they stumble into the dorm, somehow without being caught, and they find themselves in remus’ bed since it’s the closest to the door; remus’ hair is still damp and curlier than ever when sirius pushes him back against the pillows, and smiles like all is right in the world. he fits in the space between remus’ arm and shoulder like a puzzle piece, and remus keeps him there, murmuring gentle things against his temple until he falls asleep.

and in the morning, when james has already left with a comment about their lazy sunday, and peter has followed james with his speech about how best mates are forever (or something like that), they allow themselves to wake up slowly.

until sirius decides he’s had enough of a lazy sunday morning. he rolls over and slings his leg across remus’ lap so he’s pinning him down with his hips, and leans sideways to rummage around in remus’ side drawer.

“you’re not gonna find any.” remus chides, resting his scarred hands around sirius’ waist, smiling warmly to himself as the pillow tries its hardest to lull him back to sleep. but sirius pulls out a pack of cigarettes, looking triumphant, and how can remus close his eyes? 

“i know. s’why i put some in there after the last time we had this conversation.”

remus, surprisingly, doesn’t say a thing. he looks up at sirius like he’s a sky full of stars and laughs, reaching his hand up to slip his slender fingers into sirius’ hair and tug him down to kiss him before he even gets a cigarette out of the package.

_( don’t you wanna swim with me? )_

_( don’t you wanna feel my skin on your skin? )_

_( it’s only natural )_


End file.
